The Goddess was right; they have no idea what they're doing.
It had been 2 months since I had forcefully borrowed the Beginners Guides to Magic. And because of their length or lack thereof, I had managed to work my way through all of them.
Let's start with what is probably accurate. I had taken to keeping a notebook… just like the good old school days. The first page categorized the basic principles I was sure of. The plan was to expand it as I went, homemade notes made for much better study material.
* Chant: Each spell is a chant (or as I had taken to calling them functions) and by altering certain characteristics (Variables) of the spell, it could change. This allowed spells to change based on the needs of the caster. In a way, there were more variations of a spell than stars in the sky. For example, just saying {Fireball: Speed 100} would be enough to send a ball of fire forward at 100m’s per second. But {Fireball: Heat 500} would send forward a ball of fire at 500C. Of course, you could combine them into {Fireball: Heat 500, Speed 100} and get the best of both worlds at the sacrifice of time spent chanting. Refining the chant to your exact needs could increase mana efficiency, the heat of the flames, distance flown, etc.
* Visualization: How one visualizes magic is as important as the function. Even if you didn't understand what a spell was trying to conjure, as long as the caster has strong visualization the spell will work. Going back, you could gain the same results as the examples above with just the simple call of {Fireball}, and by imagining the effects. The downside, using visualization to pave over the cracks in one's own understanding of a spell costs significantly more mana to cast. By that same token, precise visualization could reduce the amount of energy used. As an example, visualizing hotter flames required a lot of energy; however, visualizing the molecules vibrating faster to increase its heat was less taxing. Understanding the core principles of certain scientific phenomena was far more effective than raw power.
* Affinity: Affinities were different branches of spellcraft with individual compatibility dictating ease of use. Technically speaking anyone could cast any spell provided they had the mana for it (although most people had minuscule amounts). The higher the caster's compatibility the less excess mana was wasted when casting. It was similar to fuel efficiency, the higher your affinity the more spells per mana. As for the Affinities:
* Divine Arts: ‘Holy’ magic used to cure injuries and strengthen the body.
* Enchantment: The only affinity that can be imbued into objects.
* Elemental: Complete control of elemental forces.
* Illusion: A subset of magic for the manipulation of sound and visual deception.
* Fortification: The creation of intangible barriers. The only known use for these functions are defensive.
* Summoning: The summoning and binding of Magic beasts… and people.
* Universal: The least useful but most interesting.
* Magic Capacity: This idea was relatively straightforward. At birth, most people had a set magic capacity. And it was genetic, magically gifted families often gave birth to mages. Over time this reserve would eventually grow by 2 to 3 times the original amount after prolonged use. Eventually, people would run into diminishing returns, some walls couldn’t be overcome with practice. And using too much too quickly can cause spell sickness. For this reason, mana restorative potions are rare because using them to cast beyond your maximum capacity could cause severe illness. To note, just because someone has a large capacity does not necessarily mean they'd be a great mage. All other factors considered if they had terrible affinities, they'd use 5x more mana to cast as someone else.
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And I hate to say it, but right after this point, I start doubting 5,000 years of knowledge. I can't 100% say it's wrong but a lot of things start sounding half-baked. Given how important scientific understanding was in casting, I felt fair in assuming that magic had been a crutch to ignore important societal events like ‘The Renaissance.” In all fairness, I did hear the creator of the system complain that no one had figured it out yet. So, I believe a bit of skepticism is in order.
However, to really go in-depth I had to run some experiments... And despite nearly setting the manor a blaze I had learned quite a bit. Including the fact that yes, I did have traumatic memories of being caught in a burning building, who would have believed it. I think the servants decided a candle was left unattended in the dining room after the noon meal. It certainly wasn’t little me trying to practice the best method for extinguishing a candle at a distance. Creating a breeze to snuff it out wasn’t the way to go apparently. After that, no further experiments with fire were conducted in any capacity. But that aside the fruits of my play- eh… labor in the library were delicious.
Magic excelled at energy conversion but not so much energy creation. For example, creating a fireball without a source of flame was high-level magic that required a significant amount of power. Most mages kept wands or staffs that had magical fire already imbued into crystals, or in a pinch a torch or candle. The act of creating fire from nothing consumed a wallop of mana no matter how much of the Elemental affinity you had. This led me to believe that converting pure magical energy into fire was more an issue a visualization than chant.
First, I captured some of the body heat radiating from my finger. Then I visualized the molecules of air that were already active to vibrate faster. I kept focusing until spontaneous combustion happened and boom, it was high-level magic. My understanding of the basic principles was weak, but I could manage after some trial and error. Obviously, this was before the candle incident. It probably wouldn't work underwater but at that point, you had bigger fish to fry. Pun intended.
For the record, spells could either be spoken or mentally recited. Verbal incantations were easier to pronounce while even minor slip-ups in mental recitations could drain the user’s mana. It took skill and practice to be able to form a function mentally and almost instantaneously without draining yourself.
Each affinity had its own way of forming spells with a unique syntax. The Divine affinity set variables and then concluded with the name of the spell. Whereas the elemental affinity uses the name of the spell then defined variables. These changes were relatively minor across the board. The beginner manuals only had a handful of spells per affinity and a very short dictionary of variables to include in those spells. Piecing together the intricacies of what functions could accomplish based on variables was another matter. Realistically, I could only piece together this much because the syntax was similar to what I used to write.
My patron was right by the way, I didn't get mastery over all affinities. I was granted a strong affinity with Enchantment, Elemental, and Fortification; I also had a minor gift with Summoning. In addition, I had a fairly large supply of mana, above average but not the largest. How did I learn this?
The most underrated school, Universal affinity. There were only two spells in the whole branch, hence why it was a pamphlet. First created an illusory screen with status bars indicating all your affinities and mana capacity. They looked suspiciously like loading bars. The second spell created a blinking light that faded after a minute…I had thoughts about what this all might be, but I wasn’t sure how to work with it quite yet.
Now I did not unravel the secrets of the universe in the first three months I had my hands on a textbook. But some things should just be obvious right? That was about where the ‘easy to come by’ information ended. Given which affinities I had compatibility with, the area of my study should have been clear. Exactly, I decided to learn about the Divine Arts an area where I have no affinity, why make things easy.
Honestly, I wanted to explore enchantment magic. But ultimately, I had to give up on that dream for now. When I first saw the descriptions for some basic enchanted items, I went giddy with excitement. Automatic doors, self-playing instruments, even small autonomous golems. I had seen videos of people using microcomputers to create drones and 3D printers, with that information I could make just about anything I fancied. Everything could be turned into a microprocessor! And oh! how I wanted to make things. I wanted to code, rather than hacking a program I could hack the physical world. I was over the moon.
There was a problem, several of them actually. I had no materials, I was broke, and if I suddenly created a transforming mech stomping around the grounds that would draw too much attention. The other affinities I had access to didn't interest me. Elemental magic was mainly used in attack spells and fortification magic was primarily for shields of those same spells. I had no interest in charging off to battle. More or less I just wanted to learn; there was just an unscratchable itch to play in the sandbox of life and see what I could build. But enough whining let's move on to what I came here for.
My first complaint, the Divine Arts. The primary spells for this affinity are healing and body enhancement. Long ago the Church of Divine Light started claiming that those with the divine affinity had been chosen by their God to heal and protect the weak. It was the hardest affinity to practice without an aptitude, but that didn’t affect me as heavily. Considering, it wasn't Divine it was biology. That was the basic premise behind the supposedly divine, no wonder Hermes had an attitude when she talked about it.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Her comments had pushed me to focus my studies on the Divine Arts. Despite not having the affinity, I knew quite a bit about basic medicine and biology. The science classes were always more interesting than literature. Even with only a high-school-level knowledge of cell structure, organs, and musculature, functions could be enhanced far beyond what was normal. This only further enhanced my belief that the better the visualization the less mana expenditure. Myself who had no affinity for the Divine language could still heal minor scrapes with only a bit of exertion, granted I did have a larger magic supply. And that's not even mentioning what Marianne could do.
She had an absolute affinity with the Divine Arts. Meaning there was no mana expenditure lost when attempting to cast spells. She was a perfect 100% on her loading bar while I only boasted an 85% as my highest in Enchantment. While her mana pool was on the small side, she had incredible potential.
Having a perfect affinity was rare, exceptionally rare. To understand, Father has some small aptitude with all affinities of magic. In the world there are few like him; most people with this level of versatility often go on to become instructors or focus on one branch of magic. Only the Elemental Magic Tome even mentioned someone with a perfect affinity. They were some long Lost Hero who died several hundred years ago. Their skills were bordering on mythical. The book even used one of their spells as a basic description for mana expenditure. Apparently, they could create a perfect wall of ice that took months to melt. This was possible because the magic was effectively in a perpetual loop that bled energy ever so slowly. I had no idea what that would look like for someone with a healing gift.
More surprising was the fact that no one had found out yet. I wasn't exactly sure if my stepmother knew about my sister's ability given her apparent dislike of magic. I wasn't willing to bring it up.
All of this culminated into what I called the grand plan. Step one was complete. Technically speaking I didn't know it was step one until I had finished it, but I was going to count all the wins I could… even if I didn't exactly set out to.
1. Learn magic.
2. Teach magic to Marianne.
3. Form a sisterly bond.
4. Overcome fear of fire.
I had the chance to work with a mythical perfect affinity, and to boot, she was my sister. This was a bonding experience if ever I had seen one. Everyone wants a cool older sister teaching them magic. This could be what I used to close the gap. Time had always been in precious supply. Mealtimes were chilly, she was always kept close to her mother, and worse she didn’t appear to have an interest in me. Not that I was going to let any of that stop me. Even those times where we were in shared lessons for how proper young ladies should act like, was fraught with whining teachers who didn’t respect the time-honored tradition of passing notes… even if there were only two students in the room. In fact, I had only learned about Marianne’s talent when the dance teacher needed to run to the restroom, and I frantically had her run through the necessary Universal affinity spell. After a confused seven-year-old saw floating lights and I witnessed a legend in the making, I made her promise not to mention it to anyone. Evidently, no one had taught her what a pinkie promise was because I got an even more confused look for that stunt. Good thing she has a sister like me around to teach her the value of schoolyard etiquette.
Oh yeah, my plan was coming together. In fact, I was going to go so far as to call it foolproof. Yeah, foolproof.
****
I was just reviewing my notes. It had been a struggle to find dedicated time to teach Marianne magic. Ultimately, I had resorted to blackmailing. The etiquette teacher for Marianne and myself had sticky fingers. After calmly explaining that the nice silverware did not belong in her luggage, we came to an understanding. One that would benefit both of us greatly.
I planned to substitute our 2-hour lesson time for what I was calling magic and tea, because who doesn't love snacks. With the etiquette teacher otherwise intimidate- er…occupied Marianne and I would have free time.
I just finished prepping the beginner spells we were going to go over when a knowing cough broke the scratch of my pen. For a half-second, I expected to see Hermes. Instead, a grizzled, weathered, and horribly scarred visage greeted me. "Miss…those wouldn't happen to be the Master's spell tomes, would they?" He was staring directly at ‘A Beginner's Guide to The Divine Arts’ and ‘Enchantment affinity: An Introduction. Not my best look.
My first thought was panic. All my careful planning down the drain. No, wait! I can turn this around.
"They might be…"
“Miss do you have any idea the trouble those books have caused in the last few months?”
Last few months! Had their absence really been discovered so soon?!
“I can see by your expression that you don't fully understand”
"Uhh.."
“No spare me." Charles heaved a heavy sigh. His face passed through all seven stages of grief in a matter of seconds. It was an exhausting thing to watch. Personally, I thought he was being melodramatic, but I was found with my hands in the cookie jar; time to face the music. He pulled out the chair opposite me and sat down with less than his usual grace. “Where did you learn to pick locks?”
The question caught me off guard. Although I guess it shouldn't have they were technically in a locked cabinet.
“Well, it was more instinct you know?”
Another deep sigh, “If they were my teacher, I'd throw them down the stairs."
What? I decided my best course of action was no action. Better not to risk sticking my neck out further than it already was.
“You left scratch marks on the cabinet doors. I noticed when I went to dust."
Oh, come on it was dark of course I was going to have trouble bending the tines of the fork to not scuff the woodwork.
"Do you realize we suspected the household servants at first? In the last few months, we've been conducting interviews and talking about calling the authorities. Magic Manuals such as those are regulated by the kingdom."
I guess I had noticed people on edge a little, but I thought that was just the usual nonsense. Why was my stomach bottoming out?
"Really though I didn't put you on the suspect list. Who would?"
A long silence fell. Even my feet weren't tapping. This was somewhere between terrifying and embarrassing, I kept flopping between which was worse.
"Now, the incident with the candle two weeks ago wasn't perchance caused by you, was it?" He let out a long-agonized groan clearly tipped off by something in my expression. “I swear you are just as bad as your mother...” I thought I had heard something under his breath but wasn’t quite sure.
"I'm not sure if you'll understand all of this, but we had a saying in my old squad. 'Those that leave tracks do not see tracks'. Do you get what I'm trying to say here?"
"Nn..no"
Trying to rub both of his temples at once with one hand must have been difficult but he was giving it a try. Must have been one hell of a headache.
“You really need to pay better attention miss. I'm trying to call you less than competent."
Under normal circumstances I might have been offended, in fact, had it been anyone other than Charles, I would have been. Indignant rage should have coursed through me but… I really didn’t have room to talk right now, and I got the feeling he was trying to do me a favor with that front-handed insult.
“I've already had to inform the lady of the house about this... Incident."
I felt the blood draining from my face. That was the worst part, this was the end of ever getting my hands on these again. They weren’t exactly the final word on the subject of magic, but I doubted that I would have a chance to look at them again until… well I didn’t even know when.
"It's a good thing the Master left the books in the library on his last stay. Why would any of the servants think that books wouldn't belong in here?"
Hope. Hope, always blooms eternal and like the sun dawning over the horiz-
"It's a good thing I caught on before you accidentally found them. I will be returning them to a more secure location."
Hope. The greatest of all treasures only to be torn asunder by the jaws of defeat.
"You are far more familiar with the library than I, Miss. Perhaps you know where the other volumes might be?” All said with raised eyebrows. He meant business. I had one chance to escape the wrath of whatever fury was before me.
“Of- of course, Charlie.” I began to stand thinking rapidly of all possible options.
“Miss, I understand. But you must realize you're far too young to be playing with these things. Best if I take them away for now. I'll send a letter to your father letting him know the official story." He reached out to gather the books in front of him.
I was faster. I gathered them up quickly and thrust them at him." I'll get the others, no need to come stomping around, you'll know if you have them all." With that, I left to gather the remaining tomes.
After a few minutes, I shoved them across the table. By this point, tears were in my eyes. He truly looked sorrowful, and it only made me feel more like a wretch.
“I'll be back with tea in a little bit.” With that he gathered everything, struggling to open the door while juggling books.
I laid my hot face on the cool oak table. I had escaped ruin by the breadth of a few hairs. I didn't think he’d noticed, but I’d already been caught once. As the dice lay, I think he would have said something if he'd caught my sleight of hand.
The tears were fake. I'd managed to scrounge them up while gathering the other tomes. The moment of truth was when I thrust the two on the table at him. He hadn't noticed that I grabbed my notebook. Then when I went to gather the other books, I had stashed it on the shelf. It was a close call no doubt, he might even have noticed, but at the end of the day he had all of the tomes and I could use a personal journal for whatever I wished.
Still, I felt like scum for lying. I’d won but it didn't feel... Right. To hell with concepts like honor or a fair fight. My fights were always unfair, usually slated in my opponent’s favor, one didn’t call forth the wrath of a national news outlet by playing nice. This was just one of those times when the person you pulled one over on wasn't the bad guy.
After a few minutes, I managed to calm down. The plan remained unchanged. I didn't have the beginner’s book to the Divine arts anymore but not all was lost. The light-fingered etiquette teacher hadn't been removed or Charles would have mentioned it. I still had a 2-hour period where we were 'in lessons’. I had my notebook with a sizable chunk of spells and dictionary entries from the various affinities copied out. And to top it off I was getting tea in a few minutes. Luck was with me … kinda. At least my lists were still solid.
1. Learn magic.
2. Teach magic to Marianne.
3. Form a sisterly bond.
4. Overcome fear of fire.
I'd start tomorrow, today had been two draining to contemplate doing much.